However, on Friday the Justice Department asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to allow the government to withdraw the appeal. Such motions are routinely granted.

The original move and the appeal infuriated lawyers for Guantanamo detainees. Many saw it as a sign that the Obama Administration, which entered office vowing to take a dramatically different approach to detainee issues and Guantanamo, was aping the unilateralist tendencies of the Bush Administration.

In his opinion rejecting the effort, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth—a Reagan appointee—branded the move as "an illegitimate exercise of Executive power." For the past decade, judges have effectively set the rules governing legal visits and communications at Guantanamo.

After POLITICO reported the appeal last month, an administration official said the notice of appeal was simply to keep the government's options open and no final decision had been made on seeing the appeal through.